Mysterious Pearl Weed-the-Sprouts Elixir

Pattern-based

• Constitutional Qi and Blood not strong (禀氣血不强) — tonification as cultivation
• Depletion needing steady tending rather than drastic rescue
• Seasonal modification built into the formula

Biomedical correlates

• Constitutional weakness and low vitality
• Preventive tonification in the fragile
• Long-course maintenance with seasonal adjustment

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

張長沙戒人妄服燥烈之藥, 謂藥勢偏有所勝而病生焉. 猶憫苗不長而揠之也. 若禀氣血不强, 合服此而不服, 是不耘苗者也. 故名爲耘苗丹. 此丹, 養五藏, 補不足, 秘固眞元, 均調二氣, 和暢榮衛, 保神守中. 五味子 八兩, 巴戟ㆍ遠志ㆍ枸杞子ㆍ山藥ㆍ白茯苓ㆍ肉蓯蓉ㆍ百部根ㆍ杜沖ㆍ蛇床子ㆍ防風ㆍ柏子仁ㆍ兎絲子 各二兩. 右爲末, 蜜丸梧子大. 溫酒或鹽湯任下五七十丸. ○夏加五味子四兩, 四季加肉蓯蓉, 秋加枸杞子六兩. ○此方, 與前陰門上丹同. 《綱目》

Translation

Zhang of Changsha warned against recklessly taking drying, violent drugs, saying that when a drug's force prevails one-sidedly, illness is born of it — like the man who, grieving that his sprouts would not grow, tugged at them. But if one's endowed Qi and Blood are not strong, and one who ought to take this does not — that is failing to weed the sprouts. Hence it is named the Weed-the-Sprouts Elixir. This elixir nourishes the five viscera, supplements insufficiency, secretly secures the true origin, evenly attunes the two Qi, harmonizes and frees construction and defense, and preserves the spirit while guarding the center. Schisandra 8 nyang; morinda, polygala, lycium fruit, dioscorea, white poria, cistanche, stemona root, eucommia, cnidium fruit, saposhnikovia, arborvitae seed, and cuscuta, 2 nyang each. Powder the above and bind with honey into pills the size of parasol-tree seeds; take 50–70 pills with warm wine or salted water. — In summer add schisandra 4 nyang; in the last month of each season add cistanche; in autumn add lycium fruit 6 nyang. — This formula is the same as the Sang-dan of the Anterior Yin chapter. — Gangmok 綱目 (Donguibogam · Heoro)